Put This On

The wristwatches of The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Via iso50

jessethorn — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:41:15 -0700

The wristwatches of The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Via iso50

"Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he’s well-dressed."

jessethorn — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:02:10 -0700

“Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he’s well-dressed.”

- Charles Dickens

White Denim Season I have one pair of white blue jeans - some...

jessethorn — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:02:00 -0700

White Denim Season

I have one pair of white blue jeans - some 501s not unlike the ones above - and this is the time of year they come out. Despite their weight, they actually wear reasonably cool, and end up being a great option on days when the sun’s out and it feels like summer, but it’s not quite hot outside.

Our friend CBenjamin’s in the picture above, and his outfit has a lot going on. He pulls it off well, but I find that I have good luck pairing my jeans with very simple compliments. Even as simple as a plain navy t-shirt and canvas sneakers. (I avoid white tops; white-on-white is a little too Andrew WK, though Andrew always looks great.)

White jeans also make a nice compliment to a summer blazer. With tan bucks, like CB is wearing, and a pale blue shirt, you have a relaxed look that’s surprisingly pull-off-able.

One note: CB’s white 501s, and mine, are tapered slightly by a tailor. This will cost you about $20, but I find that a trendier, slimmer fit is more appropriate with a jean like this. It helps drive home the point that you’re wearing white denim on purpose.

Floppy Shoes I love floppy shoes, particularly for wearing on...

derekguypto — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:00:00 -0700

Floppy Shoes

I love floppy shoes, particularly for wearing on warm weather days. By floppy, I mean what’s usually referred to as unlined - a term that’s kind of a misnomer since few shoes are truly made without any lining. Like with neckties, when a company describes their shoes as unlined, what they usually mean is that they’re partially or lightly lined, as some lining is often still used to give the shoes some structure.

To explain, a well-made pair of leather shoes will usually have a full leather sock liner built in. That means two pieces of leather are joined together to form the upper. There’s the leather that faces the outside world, and the leather that touches your feet. By joining these two pieces together, you get something that has a bit more structure and will holds its shape better. Without the lining, however, you get a softer, more comfortable shoe. Whereas most leather shoes need a break-in period, unlined shoes will feel like slippers on first wear.

My own floppy unlined shoes are by Alden. I have two pairs of their suede chukkas – one in snuff suede and the other in tan. The bottom is built on Alden’s flex welt sole, which is a thin, water-locked, oiled leather. It’s exceptionally flexible and complements the shoes’ unlined construction well. The combination of the two makes for a lightweight, comfortable boot that looks as great with jeans and chinos as they do with grey wool trousers.

They’re expensive at full retail, but sometimes you can find them for about half off on eBay. Allen Edmonds has a similar model called the Amok. The shape is slightly sleeker, and it comes in at $250. Nordstorm describes it as having a leather lining, but you can see this isn’t true when you zoom in on the photos.

Alden also makes unlined derbys and loafers, which you can find through Harrison, Unionmade, Leffot, and Shoemart. The unlined loafers also come in shell cordovan (most notably in the well-beloved Horween #8, which has a beautiful reddish-brown color). That one is sold exclusively through Brooks Brothers, who has them on discount today as part of their Corporate Card event (30% off for anyone who holds a Brooks corporate card). For something a bit more affordable – but no less well made – consider Rancourt. They have a made-to-order system that can allow you to order any of their shoes unlined. I’m personally thinking of getting some snuff suede unlined penny loafers from them in the next month or so.

(Photo credit: Unionmade)

eBay Roundup We have a nice eBay roundup today and I...

derekguypto — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:00:00 -0700

eBay Roundup

We have a nice eBay roundup today and I particularly like some of the finds listed in the footwear section, including these shell cordovan shoes, tan loafers, and suede German Army Trainers by Maison Martin Margiela (Jesse wrote about the originals sometime last year, as some readers may remember).

And as usual, if you don’t see anything here you like, you can use our customized search links to find more auctions. We have them for high-end suits, good suits, high-quality shirts and fine footwear.

Suits, sport coats, and blazers

Outerwear

Shirts and pants

Shoes

Some nice shell cordovan shoes, 8.5 (one of which is pictured above)
Ralph Lauren black derbys, 9
Ralph Lauren double monks, 9
Ralph Lauren tan loafers, 9
Alden brown suede wingtips, 10
Margiela brown suede GATs, 10
Eastland Made in Maine ranger mocs, 11
Foster & Sons brown loafers, 11.5
Black penny loafers, 14

Ties

Bags, briefcases, and wallets

Misc.

If you want access to an extra roundup every week, exclusive to members, join Put This On’s Inside Track for just five bucks a month.

Colin Marshall on Men’s Style Books: 100 Years of Menswear by Cally Blackman

japanesejazz — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:00:00 -0700

About the menswear of the twentieth century, I can say this for sure: I don’t think I’d wear most of it. Neither would you, I imagine, unless you’ve thrown in your lot with the Brooklyn handlebar-mustache set, though in that case you’d have pledged allegiance to only a select set of time periods, stylistically compatible or otherwise. Reading through Cally Blackman’s 100 Years of Menswear exposes you to all of them, from 1900 up to the mid-2000s, breaking down their clothes by vocational and avocational inspiration: worker, soldier, artist, reformer, rebel, peacock, media star, and so on. This organizing scheme roots the shifting aesthetics of all menswear in functionality, a flattering assumption — no useless, free-floating design whims for us men, thank you very much, even us men who happen to be designers — but not necessarily an incorrect one. Suitable dress helps all of us do our jobs, and that holds truer still for full-time rebels and peacocks.

Even for quite a few of those rebels and peacocks, the most suitable form of dress remains, yes, the suit. “The three-piece suit, introduced and formalized in the late seventeenth century, has prospered for nearly 350 years because of its unique capacity for nuance and variation,” Blackman writes in the introduction. “To adapt a phrase from Le Corbusier, the suit is a machine for living in, close-fitting but comfortable armor, constantly revised and reinvented to be, literally, well-suited for modern daily life.” Yet twentieth-century menswear history tells, in large part, the story of the suit-wearing’s decline, which went especially precipitous in the late sixties. The pages of 100 Years of Menswear offer suits aplenty, both photographed and illustrated, in settings from the street to the workplace to (in a bizarre 1937 Esquire spread) the ski slopes, but they ultimately prioritize the diversity that the decades would let emerge: we see plus fours and pushed-up Miami Vice sleeves, tennis whites and motorcycle gear, Beatle boots and Nehru jackets – all, I suppose, the components of machines for living, albeit very different ways of doing it.

That said, nobody expects you to want to wear most of the menswear of the twentieth century. Though it doesn’t present itself as any kind of how-to, the book does contain images that may come in handy when you put together your next period costume. Turning up at the office party as Bryan Ferry in 1977, seen in Blackman’s selected photo evoking vintage gangsterism in a gray three-piece with viciously peaked lapels, strikes me as a particularly sound idea. But doesn’t that setup, a rock star deep in the glam years ordering his tailor of choice to evoke a bygone age of classy thuggishness, also offer a deeper kind of instruction? Examine the photos in 100 Years of Menswear systematically enough — for, despite its surprisingly meaty captions and chapter introductions, a photo book it remains — and you’ll get a feel for not just the way certain fashions periodically float to the top of the sartorial zeitgeist, but how other fashions exert influence within those fashions. One era’s peacock imitates another’s soldier; its rebel, another’s worker; its media star, another’s artist.

While Ferry has long displayed a knack for knowing when to draw upon his favorite bits of the past, his contemporary David Bowie more famously took this historical layering to its logical end. Since Blackman regards subculture as perhaps the most influential force on menswear, I might have expected her to include more than two pictures of the man who — as Ziggy Stardust, as Aladdin Sane, as the Thin White Duke, as whomever — not only made use of more subcultures than any other dresser, but created a few subcultures of his own. But you or I, out less to create subcultures than to simply dress with care, imitate the differently flamboyant likes of Ferry or Bowie at our peril. We’d do even worse to take as examples the outfits seen in Blackman’s final two chapters, covering stylists’ and designers’ experiments from 1940 to present. But the better we understand the ends of menswear’s various aesthetic axes, the better we can place ourselves in more tenable positions along them. At the very least, you can profit from the book’s penchant for extremity for its “what not to wear” (or at least “what to tone way down”) factor.

100 Years of Menswear also offers knowledge as a pure visual chronicle, and for such a project Blackman, a writer and teacher with previous books on general fashion, costume, illustration, and the styles of the twenties and thirties to her credit, has the credentials you’d expect. (As a non-man, she brings still more objectivity to the table.) But any book that pays equal attention to Andy Warhol, Edward VII, Miles Davis, Boy George, Mark Twain, and Marc Bolan risks coming off as a book insufficiently focused, and most serious dressers will narrow their attention to a particular chapter or two. I find myself returning most often to the pages on media stars, not just because all my own work involves media – though as noted above, our form will, ideally, fit our function – but because their dress tends to stand, or in any case once stood, the test of time. There we find a still of Cary Grant in North By Northwest, and Blackman reminds us that the icon “always wore his own clothes on screen,” “a testament to his faultless style and effortless elegance at a time when the stylist did not exist.” A better time, we might sigh, moving on to scrutinize an image of Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair. The fact that another, even better-known photo of the era-defying McQueen graces the cover hints at where Blackman’s carefully concealed stylistic allegiance may lie. Then again, that same chapter devotes an entire page to Starsky and Hutch, so I wouldn’t make any bets.

Colin Marshall hosts and produces Notebook on Cities and Culture and writes essays on literature, film, cities, Asia, and aesthetics. He’s at work on a book about Los Angeles, A Los Angeles Primer. Follow him on Twitter @colinmarshall. To buy 100 Years of Menswear, you can find the best prices at DealOz.

It’s On Sale: Lyonstate Store Credit UrbanDaddy has a...

derekguypto — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:27:00 -0700

It’s On Sale: Lyonstate Store Credit

UrbanDaddy has a promotion right now with online menswear retailer Lyonstate. For a limited time, you can purchase $150 worth of store credit for $100, or $300 worth for $200. The promotion is only good on full priced items, but that effectively gives you 33% off most things in store.

(Pictured above: Oak Street Bootmakers navy trail oxfords)

Put This On's Inside Track for the week of May 19th - May 25th

derekguypto — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:58:00 -0700

Here are our hand-selected favorites from eBay for this week, plus heads-up on recommended sales. If you’re a member of the Inside Track, click through, and log in with your Member.ly username and password. If you’re not a member, you can join now for just $5 a month - you’ll get access to one of these members-only lists every week, and your membership supports Put This On.

See the rest →

The Man Who Thrifted A Ferrari Who’d have thought you...

jessethorn — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:30:00 -0700

The Man Who Thrifted A Ferrari

Who’d have thought you could thrift a Ferrari?

Matthew R. is an inveterate thrifter. He says he works seventy hours a week, and he’s been buying and selling second-hand clothes since 1998. Not long ago, he started a consignment service, Luxeswap, and not only do their auctions often crop up in our eBay picks, but I’ve personally trusted him to consign a number of clothes in the past. He’s one of the best menswear sellers on eBay. But truly: I had no idea.

This week, Matthew bought a Ferrari. With thrift store money.

Here’s how it happened…

Matthew started thrifting in the late nineties, and quickly learned that when he found something good that didn’t fit him, he could sell it on eBay and make a little dough. The first item was an Emporio Armani sportcoat. It sold for fifty bucks. Like most of us, Matthew took the extra money and spent it on clothes and small indulgences.

In 2007, he read a book called One Red Paperclip. It was written by a man, Kyle MacDonald, who traded a paperclip for a pen for a doorknob for a camping stove and on and on for a year until he had traded for a new house. Matthew thought: how could I turn my own little hobby into something special?

So he started a savings account.

His business money went into a business account. His personal money - the money from his own personal purchases - went into the savings account. And year after year, that money grew.

Then, last week, he took the money and bought a Ferrari.

Matthew says: “This car was born of things that nobody else wanted. Things that people discarded. I wanted to be able to say I thrifted a Ferrari. And I did.”

A genuinely remarkable achievement.

It’s On Sale: Tellason Denim For a limited time, you can...

derekguypto — Sat, 18 May 2013 10:48:00 -0700

It’s On Sale: Tellason Denim

For a limited time, you can take 20% off at North River Outfitters with the checkout code matchbook. The code seems to work on everything except Aldens. That includes the Tellason jeans you see here, which have already been discounted to $165. With the code, these come out to $132, with free shipping to boot.

Note, I have no experience with Tellason’s jeans outside of handling them in a store. They seemed nice in person, but as it goes with clothing, you don’t really know the quality of something until you’ve personally worn it for a while. On the upside, Tellason gets good reviews on Superfuture, where many denim enthusiasts hang out, and Woodlands has measurements for one of the models. You’ll want familiarize yourself with the brand before buying, as North River Outfitters will only offer exchanges or store credit on returned sale items.

theparisreview: Gay Talese’s outline for “Frank Sinatra Has a...

jessethorn — Sat, 18 May 2013 07:59:44 -0700

theparisreview:

Gay Talese’s outline for “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” 1966, written on a shirt board.

If you haven’t seen our segment on Mr. Talese, watch it. And if you haven’t read “Frank Sinatra Has A Cold,” read it.

eBay Roundup We have some great items today. I really like...

derekguypto — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:00:14 -0700

eBay Roundup

We have some great items today. I really like these EG Cappelli neckties, Alden unlined suede chukkas, and this Cucinelli navy coat. I’m also selling a bunch of items this week, all of which end this Sunday.

Suits, sport coats, and blazers

Outerwear

Sweaters and knits

Green v-neck sweater, M

Shirts and pants

Shoes

Ties

Bags, briefcases, and wallets

Tan briefcase

Misc.

If you want access to an extra roundup every week, exclusive to members, join Put This On’s Inside Track for just five bucks a month.

Our Rudiments host Dave Hill has a new single with his band...

jessethorn — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:27:35 -0700

Our Rudiments host Dave Hill has a new single with his band Valley Lodge. It’s called Kiss Me, I’m Drunk.

Four Socks for Summer For much of the year, I rely on navy wool...

derekguypto — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:00:00 -0700

Dapper Classics

Mocc Socks

Aldo terry cloth insoles

Uniqlo grey cotton socks

Four Socks for Summer

For much of the year, I rely on navy wool over-the-calf socks. As many readers will know, I favor over-the-calfs because they stay up on your leg, thus ensuring your bare calves won’t be exposed when you sit down. I also find navy is a slightly more interesting color than black, and can be successfully paired with almost any kind of trouser.

In the summer months, however, long wool socks can wear a bit too warm, so I turn to other options. The first are still navy over-the-calfs, but instead of wool, I’ve come to really appreciate the highly breathable cotton ones sold by Dapper Classics. They sent me a few pairs for free last year and I’m really pleased with how well they’ve held up. Like with many high-end socks, however, I’ve found that solid colors hold up much better than patterns. For whatever reason, high end patterned socks seem to fuzz up and fall apart more easily in the wash. Still, their solid navy is made with a very durable, breathable weave, and you can feel the air whiff by when you put these on and wiggle your feet.

Another popular option is no-show socks, which Jesse has written about before. They’re essentially a short cotton sock that allows you get the look of being sockless without actually having to be so. In addition to the ones Jesse named, 2(x)ist also just released a collection of no-show socks. I have no experience with them, though I’m told they have a rubber grip at the heel that helps prevent slippage. Jesse also reviewed the Mocc Socks he named in his original article, and liked them.

I tried no-show socks a couple of years ago and sadly found they just didn’t work for me. Mine had rubber grips as well, but they still kept slipping off. So I’ve turned to terry cloth insoles from Aldos, which you can slip into your shoes whenever you want to go sockless. If your feet get sweaty easily, sprinkle in a little Gold Bond powder to keep them cool and dry.

Finally, summer being what it is, I like to wear sneakers a bit more often on the weekends. Dress socks are a bit weird with sneakers, so I pair mine with more casual cotton socks. Like Jesse, mine are from Lands’ End and Uniqlo. I’ve found the ones from Lands’ End hold up a bit better, though I like Uniqlo’s designs (mine are these in grey). Get whichever ones you like best, though I recommend staying away from the white ones. Those just look too much like athletic tube socks, which in my opinion, should be worn only when you’re exercising.

On Style and Punctuation

derekguypto — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:05:58 -0700

On Style and Punctuation

What I Take Long Walks In With the exception of running shoes,...

derekguypto — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:00:00 -0700

What I Take Long Walks In

With the exception of running shoes, the most comfortable shoes I’ve worn have always been built on Plantation crepe. Crepe refers to a sort of soft rubber - usually slightly yellow-ish in color - that comes in large sheets. Shoe manufacturers take these sheets, cut them down to the size and shape necessary, and then layer them to form a sole. The result is something that’s very, very comfortable. They make you feel like you’re walking on soft clouds, or more realistically, like those big rubber pads that toddlers play on.

The upside to crepe is that they’re comfortable, particularly on hard concrete, and look suitably stylish for spring through fall wear. The downside is that they might not last as long as a pair of hard-bottom leather soles. Still, they can still be replaced by an experienced cobbler when the time comes. I’ve also read that crepe can get rigid and crack. I don’t know if this is because of harsh weather conditions or just plain age, but for what it’s worth, that’s never happened to any of my crepe soled shoes.

There are a number of shoe styles that are commonly made with Plantation crepe - boots, plain toe derbys, moccasins, etc. My favorites are perhaps brown suede chukkas, which I think look particularly nice with cotton trousers, casual shirts, and even the occasional soft-shouldered odd jacket. The pairing of suede and crepe makes for a particularly stylish casual combination, and you can find suede, crepe soled chukkas at a pretty wide range of price points. On the high end, A Suitable Wardrobe has my favorites - a really handsome model that looks sleek enough to be worn with grey wool trousers. For something more casual and affordable, consider Church’s Sahara, Loake’s Gobi, or Clarks’ desert boots. The third retails for about $120, but it’s not hard to find them for under $100. Just Google around or check eBay.

Our Beloved Sponsors Twice a month, we like to thank our...

derekguypto — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:00:00 -0700

Cottonworks' online interface

Cottonwork's fabrics

Flint & Tinder undergarments

Flint & Tinder grey undershirt

Frank Clegg Leatherworks briefcase

Frank Clegg Leatherworks card case

Our Beloved Sponsors

Twice a month, we like to thank our sponsors for supporting our site. Our sponsors this month include Cottonwork, Flint & Tinder, Frank Clegg Leatherworks, and The Hanger Project.

Cottonwork sells custom-made shirts over the internet. You can order by either submitting your measurements online or sending them your best fitting shirt to be copied. From there, they have a nice online interface for you to work with as you design your shirt. Basically, as you make selections for the collar style, fit, and cloth, you get to see your shirt being built in real-time, so that you have an idea of what it might look like. They also have a free starter kit you can order from their website. In it, you’ll find some coupon codes for your first order, some sample fabrics, and a measuring tape.

Our second sponsor Flint & Tinder specializes in American-made undergarments, including undershirts, boxers, briefs, boxer-briefs, and socks. This summer, they’re also launching something they’re calling The All-Summer Board Short. It’s basically a pair of swimming trunks that you can also use as regular shorts (they have belt loops, pockets, and don’t have any crazy patterns that would limit them to the water). The idea is to give men the option of buying a pair of swim trunk that they can actually wear all summer long, even if they don’t go near water that often.

Our third sponsor is Frank Clegg Leatherworks. Frank Clegg, the proprietor, has been making leather goods for over forty years. Today, he makes a range of leathergoods and accessories out of his workshop in Fall Rivers, Massachusetts. He has a pretty big selection of things he sells in his online shop. There are briefcases made out of a sturdy harness belting leather (which is a kind of vegetable tanned leather treated with extra fat liquors during the condition process), some travel bags made from shrunken leather, and some wallets, card cases, and iPhone sleeves for people looking for small gifts.

Finally, our last sponsor is The Hanger Project. As their name suggests, they specialize in high-end hangers, but they also sell a range of other things, such as Saphir shoe care products, closet organization accessories, and neckties.

So thanks to all four of our sponsors for their support. We genuinely appreciate their support.

If you want to advertise on Put This On, just email us at contact@putthison.com.

As some Put This On readers may know, I’m a public radio...

jessethorn — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:44:57 -0700

As some Put This On readers may know, I’m a public radio host by trade. This week, on my show Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, I got to talk to one of my all-time heroes: Mel Brooks. It was an absolutely amazing experience, and I hope you’ll take the time to give it a listen. If you enjoy the show, subscribe to it free in iTunes.

3sixteen Sample Sale (in Los Angeles) One of my favorite brands...

derekguypto — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:17:00 -0700

3sixteen Sample Sale (in Los Angeles)

One of my favorite brands of denim, 3sixteen, is having a sample sale this Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles. The event will be held at 144 N. La Brea Avenue from noon until 7pm both days. Cash and credit card payments will be accepted. Word is that they’ll have jeans, shirts, outerwear, and accessories, all discounted between 50-80% off retail price.

My favorites from them are their SL-100x jeans, which is a slim straight-legged model made from a 14.5 oz raw selvedge denim. Above is a pair that one of the company’s founders, Andrew Chen, wore for about a year and hand washed every two to three months. Beautiful stuff.

eBay Roundup Our friend The RJcat, who helped us with...

derekguypto — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:00:13 -0700

eBay Roundup

Our friend The RJcat, who helped us with today’s roundup, just listed some of his own auctions for this week. He’s got a bunch of neckties, a briefcase, and a scarf. I’ve also listed some things, including some grenadines, casual shoes, and an Ovadia & Sons motorcycle jacket, some of which you can see above. Consider checking out our listings.

Suits, sport coats, and blazers

Outerwear

Sweaters and knits

Shirts and pants

Shoes

Ties

Bags, briefcases, and wallets

Misc.

If you want access to an extra roundup every week, exclusive to members, join Put This On’s Inside Track for just five bucks a month.